Thursday, September 25, 2014

The Most Memorable Part of the Potion Wedding Day

So this post was a little harder for me to write than the first After the Wedding post.  I guess maybe I didn't fully understand the prompt ;)  So I asked Mr. Potion for some help.

photo by One Photo Gallery


Initially, I was going to write about our cupcakes.  We had cupcakes instead of a traditional wedding cake- red velvet, carrot cake, and chocolate- and Mr. Potion and I shared a chocolate one for the traditional feed-each-other-cake bit of the reception.  Because we didn't have a top tier of the cake, and because it would have been a logistical nightmare to get any cake all the way back to Northern Virginia from our Alabama wedding, we didn't have any "wedding cake" to eat on our first anniversary.  We spent our first anniversary in the hospital, welcoming Baby Potion into the world, and that night, our moms picked up some grocery store cupcakes with chocolate frosting so we could have our little anniversary cake moment.  Since chocolate cupcakes are pretty easy to find no matter where you are, I figured we can celebrate every anniversary the same way.

*personal photo*
 "But maybe I shouldn't write about that," I said, as we discussed the topic of this post, "because that was just an arbitrary decision I made without asking you."

"Well, that perfectly encapsulates our relationship, then!"

Ha, Mr. Potion.  Very funny.

No, instead, I'd have to say that the most memorable part of our wedding day was a sort of inside joke between the two of us that happened when we said our vows.  As we were leaving the reception and driving off to the honeymoon, we were talking about how we'd each been a little nervous during the ceremony, and, as it turns out, we were both afraid of messing up the vows, even though we had chosen the "repeat after the priest"-style. 

Mr. Potion had joked that he was going to say, "I, Mr. Potion, take you, Miss Potion, for my awful wife,"- instead of lawful wife.  We didn't rehearse the actual vows at the rehearsal, so he never had a chance to pull his prank, but as we stood hand-in-hand, gazing into each other's eyes, the word awful dominated his subconscious.  He had every intention of reciting his vows properly, but now his joke was coming back to bite him and he was afraid he was actually going to say awful.  Thankfully, he managed to say the right words, and nobody had any inkling of his inner struggle.

photo by One Photo Gallery
He wasn't the only goofball in danger of screwing things up, though.

For some reason- I will never know why- as Father Ninja started feeding me my vows, my brain started saying, "DON'T SAY WIFE, DON'T SAY WIFE!"  Out of nowhere, I had this terrible fear that I was going to say, "I, Miss Potion, take you, Mr. Potion, for my lawful wife," instead of husband.  (I'm the wife, he's the husband!)  I don't know why I thought I was going to mess that up, but in those few seconds, as my subconscious chanted "DON'T SAY WIFE!  DON'T SAY WIFE!" all I could hear was the word wife rushing through my ears.  Much as Mr. Potion thought he was doomed to an awful marriage, I thought I was doomed to take a wife instead of a husband!  Fortunately, I managed to maintain full control over my tongue and properly vow to take Mr. Potion as my lawful husband, even as my heart hammered against my chest. 

Though we didn't know it until afterwards, we had both approached the altar to say our vows in a state of fear that we were going to mess it up.  We never lost sight of each other, however, and we escaped the wedding unscathed.

That's a bit of a dramatic way of putting it, but when you think of it that way, this moment really does encapsulate our relationship.  Though we may joke around, we both take our roles as wife and husband very seriously, and there are times when we both are afraid that we're in danger of screwing it up.  If we hold onto each other, and never lose sight of this love- this messy, imperfect, constant work-in-progress love- we're not going to screw up, we're going to succeed.

But those cupcakes really were delicious ;)

If you're interested in what else we've been up to since the wedding, follow along at Our Geeky Adventure!

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Are the Potions Living Up to Their Vows?

Hello, Hive!  I'm so excited to be back and participating in the "After the Wedding" series!  Have you missed me?  I've missed you!

This November, Mr. Potion and I will celebrate our second anniversary.  Two years isn't very long- I mean, it's ages longer than the typical Hollywood marriage, but even in today's divorce-happy society, two years can still be considered no time at all.  But unlike most couples nowadays, we got pregnant just three months into our marriage...and babies bring plenty of opportunities to test your vows.  Let's see how well we've done.

photo by One Photo Gallery

Now, we're both Catholic- Mr. Potion is a convert and I'm a cradle-Catholic- so we had a traditional ceremony and recited traditional vows

I take you as my lawful spouse, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.

These vows don't promise any specific actions or attitudes- they don't say I promise to not snap at you when you're pissing me off or I promise to let you have the last Oreo in the package- they don't even say I promise not to cheat on you.  What they do say is I take you as my lawful spouse...until death do us part.  That's it.  You will be my spouse, and I will treat you as a spouse until death do us part, no matter what happens.  We vowed to be married and stay married no matter what challenges arise in our relationship, no matter how hard it gets, no matter how our emotions and feelings may change, because love is an action- a choice- not an emotion.  Love is a purposeful mindset, not something you fall into or out of accidentally.

Oh hey, wow, that got really heavy.

Thankfully, we haven't gone through any terribly trying moments in our almost-two years.  I wake up every morning and choose to be in love with Mr Potion, it's never been a difficult choice to make.

Our better looks like this:

personal photo
Our worse looks like a sink overflowing with dirty dishes, a fridge stocked with only breast milk, and stupid arguments fueled by sleep deprivation.

Our richer looks like going out or ordering in every night of the week when I'm 9 months pregnant and feel like I could eat for 10 but don't want to cook for even 2 and we haven't yet factored diapers into our budget.

Our poorer looks like discussions of no longer eating out at all and efforts to vastly reduce our grocery budget.

Neither pregnancy nor childbirth count as sickness, but if you've read my birth story (which is not for the faint of heart), you know that Mr. Potion went above and beyond the call of duty as a husband during labor and in the days after our daughter was born.  And he's done more than just stay by my side- he's continued to see me as a husband sees his wife when I was 9 million pounds at the end of the pregnancy and months later in my new, squishy, stretch-marked body.

So yes, I think we've lived up to our vows.  Though we haven't even been married for two years yet, we have faced some difficult times together- though we know that even more difficult times are yet to come- and we have continued to have and hold each other, no matter what.

photo by One Photo Gallery
Curious to know more about our life since the wedding?  Come visit me at Our Geeky Adventure!